Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 422. Estimate $15000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $47500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BOIOTIA, Thebes. Circa 440-425 BC. AR Stater (12.06 g). Boiotian shield / Facing bearded head of Herakles, wearing lion's skin headdress; Q-E across lower field; all within square incuse. Head, Boeotia p. 35, class a = Imhoof-Blumer, Boeotiens, 129, pl. II, 129 (same rev. die); Myron Hoard pl. A, 34 (same rev. die); SNG Cop. 281; Traité III 234, pl. CC, 3 (same rev. die); Pozzi 1423 = Pozzi (Boutin) 3256 (same rev. die); Gulbenkian 500 (same rev. die); Gillet 902 = de Sartiges 251 (this coin). Good VF, even pearl grey tone. Very rare. ($15,000)

Ex Kunstfreund [Gillet] (Leu and Münzen und Medaillen 28 May 1974), lot 146 (CHF 34,000 hammer); Charles Gillet Collection (photofile), no. 902; Vicomte de Sartiges Collection, 251; Frank S. Benson Collection (Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge 3 February 1909), lot 514; A. Rhousopoulos Collection (J. Hirsch XIII, 15 May 1905), lot 1791.

The depth of perspective of this facing head is indeed stunning. The more one looks at it from a close range, the more mesmerized he becomes by it.